Which to use
“devious” and “devout” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,807
- “devious” frequency rank
- #18,539
- “devout” frequency rank
- 46346
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | devious | devout |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cunning or deceiving, not straightforward or honest, not frank. | Devoted to religion or to religious feelings and duties; pious; extremely religious; godly. |
Where the eye mixes devious and devout
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between devious and devout
A purely visual mix-up. devious (/ˈdiː.vi.əs/) and devout (/dɪˈvaʊt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46346, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
devious is recorded at frequency rank #27,807, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈdiː.vi.əs/. devout is at rank #18,539, tagged as anadj, pronounced /dɪˈvaʊt/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 46346, this pair ranks #212,656 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of devious vs devout
Shared letters: deouv. Private to "devious": is. Private to "devout": t.
"devious" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVC · "devout" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "devious" and "devout" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "devious" or "devout"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "devious" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devout" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #212,656 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "devious" and "devout" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devious vs Devos". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #212,656 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.